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Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case Of America's Unknown Child
On February 25, 1957, the nude, badly bruised body of a young boy was found in a cardboard box in trash-strewn woods of north Philadelphia. Posters of the “Boy in the Box” soon dotted the city and police stations nationwide—to no avail. In November 1998 the remains were exhumed for DNA analysis, and the boy was reburied as “America’s Unknown Child.”
This is a riveting true account of the infamous child-murder mystery that has gripped Philadelphia and all of America for more than 50 years.
This is a riveting true account of the infamous child-murder mystery that has gripped Philadelphia and all of America for more than 50 years.
272 pages, Paperback
First published September 2, 2008
31 people are currently reading
1164 people want to read
About the author
David Stout
28 books15 followersDavid Stout (b. 1942) is an accomplished reporter who has been writing mysteries and true crime since the 1980s. Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, Stout took a job at the New York Times in 1982. He spent nearly twenty-eight years at the newspaper, as a reporter, editor and rewrite man covering national news and sports, and retired in 2009.
Stout began writing his first novel while working at the Times. Based on the true story of a 1940s double-murder for which fourteen year-old George Stinney was controversially executed, Carolina Skeletons (1988) won Stout an Edgar award for best first novel. After two more well-received mysteries, Night Of The Ice Storm (1991) and The Dog Hermit (1993), Stout turned to writing non-fiction. Night Of The Devil (2003) tells the story of famous convict Thomas Trantino, while The Boy In The Box (2008) is an investigation of one of America’s most famous unsolved murders. Since retiring from the Times, Stout has redoubled his work on his next book.
Stout began writing his first novel while working at the Times. Based on the true story of a 1940s double-murder for which fourteen year-old George Stinney was controversially executed, Carolina Skeletons (1988) won Stout an Edgar award for best first novel. After two more well-received mysteries, Night Of The Ice Storm (1991) and The Dog Hermit (1993), Stout turned to writing non-fiction. Night Of The Devil (2003) tells the story of famous convict Thomas Trantino, while The Boy In The Box (2008) is an investigation of one of America’s most famous unsolved murders. Since retiring from the Times, Stout has redoubled his work on his next book.
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December 11, 2025
Joseph Augustus Zarelli, first known as “the boy in the box” was found in February of 1957. He was found nude and bruised in a box near the woods in Philadelphia. The residue of baked beans coated his throat, his fingernails were recently clipped, his hair was recently cut. A blanket was wrapped around his beaten and malnourished body. Nobody ever claimed the child as their own, nobody ever saw this child before, he was entirely and completely unknown to all. For 65 years, Joseph was a face without a name. For nearly seven decades, he had no name, no family, no confirmed age. Until 2022 that is, when genealogists worked with Philadelphia police to finally find the boys identity. To this day, investigators are attempting to solve this case.
This book goes over the many theories and leads that have occurred over the past few decades. Many of these leads were entirely useless, having zero relevance to Joseph or the case at all. But some, such as the theory of “Mary,” are still sometimes believed to be the true story behind what happened to Joseph. While this book has many detail that one may consider unnecessary, it provides insight into how desperately authorities attempted to solve the case. Countless leads that wind up leading to nowhere, and they continued to try for decades.
For the sake of saving myself time, to explain the two major theories, I will use bits of my essay that I needed to read this book for.
Remington Bristow devoted much of his life to the unknown boy, and he died believing his own theory about a foster home to be entirely true. Approximately one and a half miles from where the boy was found, there was a foster home. Remington had already believed that the home might have had something to do with the crime, but his theories were only encouraged after he visited a psychic. This psychic told Bristow to search for a house that matched the description of the foster home, leading to Bristow searching the area. In the home, Bristow found a bassinet that was eerily similar to the one that should have been in the JC Penny box that Joseph was found in. Not only that, but Bristow found blankets practically identical to the one wrapped around the boy when he was found dead nearly two miles away. However, the police were able to disprove this theory by establishing that all of the foster children were noted to be safe and accounted for.
In the year 2002, a woman commonly referred to as “M,” “Martha,” or “Mary” came forward to the police, stating that she knew something about a small boy that was once living with her family. She was urged by her psychiatrist to tell her story, and possibly bring justice for this boy. Mary’s story started before the boy showed up in her home, revealing horrors of abuse that go beyond the boy in the box. Her parents were school faculty, and they were loved by everyone who knew them. Except, they didn’t truly know Mary’s parents at all. Their true colors remained hidden until February of 2002, when Mary worked up the courage to reveal that her father molested her, and her mother encouraged it. Their identities were originally kept secret, but many people from Philadelphia found themselves searching for old yearbooks in hopes of finding the school faculty responsible for the sexual abuse of the young girl. Mary was thirteen when her mother took her into the car and drove through a neighborhood that Mary did not recognize. They went up to a house and a woman opened the door, holding a baby in her hands. From inside the house, Mary claimed to have heard a man ask, “Did you get the money?” as Mary’s mother pulled out an envelope and handed it to the woman in exchange for the baby. Mary recalled, “I didn’t know anything about holding a baby. And his diaper was wet. It smelled like pee, I remember that. But I didn’t mind holding him, I really didn’t. I felt sorry for him,”. Mary did not know the crimes her parents committed had names. She felt, in her soul, that their actions were continuously wrong but had little understanding of the heinous acts they perpetrated over the years. The little boy, called Jonathan by Mary, was kept in the basement. For his bed, he was given a cardboard box with blankets and heavy dishes resembling the ones for dogs for his food. According to Mary, her mother occasionally brought the boy food. Sometimes, she would stay in the basement longer than usual. Considering her parents' perversions towards children, one might deduce that the mother may have stayed in the basement for long periods of time to assault the innocent boy. One night in late February of 1957, her mother cooked baked beans. She brought a serving down to “Jonathan” and when she came back upstairs, she announced that the boy would be having a bath. Moments later, she dragged the boy up the stairs and to the bathroom. Mary said, “God, his eyes looked so scared”. Mary was told to cut his fingernails and when the tub was full, her mother placed the boy in water that was simply too hot. He thrashed, he screamed, and he splashed in reaction to the pain. Filled with rage, the mother picked him out of the tub and screamed at the boy until he went silent before placing him back in the water. This was a short-lived silence, as the small child threw up his baked beans resulting in another fit of rage in which Mary’s mother hit him. Once he cried in pain, she hit him with so much force that his small head hit the floor so hard that his crying came to a halt. Mary went along to the road where her mother dropped the body. She remembered the woods, the country road appearance of the path, but she remembered the sadness she felt most of all.
“He'd sit there, rocking back and forth. Making these sounds that you'd expect from a little baby. I'd talk to him, call him Jonathan. Sometimes he'd look into my eyes, like he almost understood. I even got him to smile.”
As I was reading this book, I wondered if the boy ever smiled. I thought about the first time my baby brother smiled, and laughed, and I wondered if Joseph had ever learned how. I wondered if he was ever given a reason or an opportunity. Reading the words “I even got him to smile,” brought me to tears more than anything else. The boy was only 4 and he had endured more pain that anyone should ever experience in an entire lifetime. Every time I closed my eyes to stop myself from crying, I saw Joseph, and I saw my own brother, and I kept asking myself how anyone could ever look at someone so small and innocent and special and choose to abuse them. Joseph Augustus Zarelli was 30 pounds when he died, extremely underweight. But those 30 pounds meant the world to me, because I know what 30 pounds feels like to hold. I know what those fragile 30 pounds feel like to spin around in your arms, dance with, cradle when they’re afraid or sad or tired. I felt those 30 pounds and I thought about how Joseph was treated in his devastatingly short life, and I was consumed with so much sadness and pain that I began to regret choosing this topic for my “true crime” essay. Except, I didn’t have the right to regret it. Joseph deserves to be known, seen, loved, missed.
In his entire four years of life, he experienced hardly any love or affection. In his death, though, he’s provided with more love than I can even fathom. The community of Parkwood Philadelphia cared for his grave for 41 years before he was moved. The people there saw him as theirs, their child. The child they didn’t get to hold, or hug, or make smile—a child they never even knew. But he’s the child they’ll always remember.
He never made a friend. Never played outside, complained about a test, faced a nasty breakup. Never found his favorite song or favorite movie, never secretly rolled his eyes at his mother or silently curse his father only to learn to appreciate them the older he got. He never lived, he was never allowed. But he did smile, even if it was only once.
This book goes over the many theories and leads that have occurred over the past few decades. Many of these leads were entirely useless, having zero relevance to Joseph or the case at all. But some, such as the theory of “Mary,” are still sometimes believed to be the true story behind what happened to Joseph. While this book has many detail that one may consider unnecessary, it provides insight into how desperately authorities attempted to solve the case. Countless leads that wind up leading to nowhere, and they continued to try for decades.
For the sake of saving myself time, to explain the two major theories, I will use bits of my essay that I needed to read this book for.
Remington Bristow devoted much of his life to the unknown boy, and he died believing his own theory about a foster home to be entirely true. Approximately one and a half miles from where the boy was found, there was a foster home. Remington had already believed that the home might have had something to do with the crime, but his theories were only encouraged after he visited a psychic. This psychic told Bristow to search for a house that matched the description of the foster home, leading to Bristow searching the area. In the home, Bristow found a bassinet that was eerily similar to the one that should have been in the JC Penny box that Joseph was found in. Not only that, but Bristow found blankets practically identical to the one wrapped around the boy when he was found dead nearly two miles away. However, the police were able to disprove this theory by establishing that all of the foster children were noted to be safe and accounted for.
In the year 2002, a woman commonly referred to as “M,” “Martha,” or “Mary” came forward to the police, stating that she knew something about a small boy that was once living with her family. She was urged by her psychiatrist to tell her story, and possibly bring justice for this boy. Mary’s story started before the boy showed up in her home, revealing horrors of abuse that go beyond the boy in the box. Her parents were school faculty, and they were loved by everyone who knew them. Except, they didn’t truly know Mary’s parents at all. Their true colors remained hidden until February of 2002, when Mary worked up the courage to reveal that her father molested her, and her mother encouraged it. Their identities were originally kept secret, but many people from Philadelphia found themselves searching for old yearbooks in hopes of finding the school faculty responsible for the sexual abuse of the young girl. Mary was thirteen when her mother took her into the car and drove through a neighborhood that Mary did not recognize. They went up to a house and a woman opened the door, holding a baby in her hands. From inside the house, Mary claimed to have heard a man ask, “Did you get the money?” as Mary’s mother pulled out an envelope and handed it to the woman in exchange for the baby. Mary recalled, “I didn’t know anything about holding a baby. And his diaper was wet. It smelled like pee, I remember that. But I didn’t mind holding him, I really didn’t. I felt sorry for him,”. Mary did not know the crimes her parents committed had names. She felt, in her soul, that their actions were continuously wrong but had little understanding of the heinous acts they perpetrated over the years. The little boy, called Jonathan by Mary, was kept in the basement. For his bed, he was given a cardboard box with blankets and heavy dishes resembling the ones for dogs for his food. According to Mary, her mother occasionally brought the boy food. Sometimes, she would stay in the basement longer than usual. Considering her parents' perversions towards children, one might deduce that the mother may have stayed in the basement for long periods of time to assault the innocent boy. One night in late February of 1957, her mother cooked baked beans. She brought a serving down to “Jonathan” and when she came back upstairs, she announced that the boy would be having a bath. Moments later, she dragged the boy up the stairs and to the bathroom. Mary said, “God, his eyes looked so scared”. Mary was told to cut his fingernails and when the tub was full, her mother placed the boy in water that was simply too hot. He thrashed, he screamed, and he splashed in reaction to the pain. Filled with rage, the mother picked him out of the tub and screamed at the boy until he went silent before placing him back in the water. This was a short-lived silence, as the small child threw up his baked beans resulting in another fit of rage in which Mary’s mother hit him. Once he cried in pain, she hit him with so much force that his small head hit the floor so hard that his crying came to a halt. Mary went along to the road where her mother dropped the body. She remembered the woods, the country road appearance of the path, but she remembered the sadness she felt most of all.
“He'd sit there, rocking back and forth. Making these sounds that you'd expect from a little baby. I'd talk to him, call him Jonathan. Sometimes he'd look into my eyes, like he almost understood. I even got him to smile.”
As I was reading this book, I wondered if the boy ever smiled. I thought about the first time my baby brother smiled, and laughed, and I wondered if Joseph had ever learned how. I wondered if he was ever given a reason or an opportunity. Reading the words “I even got him to smile,” brought me to tears more than anything else. The boy was only 4 and he had endured more pain that anyone should ever experience in an entire lifetime. Every time I closed my eyes to stop myself from crying, I saw Joseph, and I saw my own brother, and I kept asking myself how anyone could ever look at someone so small and innocent and special and choose to abuse them. Joseph Augustus Zarelli was 30 pounds when he died, extremely underweight. But those 30 pounds meant the world to me, because I know what 30 pounds feels like to hold. I know what those fragile 30 pounds feel like to spin around in your arms, dance with, cradle when they’re afraid or sad or tired. I felt those 30 pounds and I thought about how Joseph was treated in his devastatingly short life, and I was consumed with so much sadness and pain that I began to regret choosing this topic for my “true crime” essay. Except, I didn’t have the right to regret it. Joseph deserves to be known, seen, loved, missed.
In his entire four years of life, he experienced hardly any love or affection. In his death, though, he’s provided with more love than I can even fathom. The community of Parkwood Philadelphia cared for his grave for 41 years before he was moved. The people there saw him as theirs, their child. The child they didn’t get to hold, or hug, or make smile—a child they never even knew. But he’s the child they’ll always remember.
He never made a friend. Never played outside, complained about a test, faced a nasty breakup. Never found his favorite song or favorite movie, never secretly rolled his eyes at his mother or silently curse his father only to learn to appreciate them the older he got. He never lived, he was never allowed. But he did smile, even if it was only once.
October 12, 2017
A child who was loved more in death than in life... I have to give this five stars for the excellent work that the author put in to writing this heartbreaking history. The tragedy of losing a child is made harder when the child is not reported missing or people coming forward to claim or identify a missing child.The case of the Boy in the Box, from Fox Chase Pennsylvania, is something that consumed the careers of many police officers and left many of the brightest minds scratching their heads. Discovered in February 1957, the young boy was seen a case that would be easily solved, as someone would come forward to claim the body. The medical examiner noticed the bruising and wounds on the body. Each person who worked the case of the Boy in the Box became so involved, that the child became an silent member of each family. With the hope of a fast solve quickly becoming dashed as the days turn into weeks and then stretching into months and years. The Boy in the Box was buried by the police department, everything being donated and contributed by the community and the homicide detectives. The case was never closed and they continue to work the case and follow any and all leads. Nothing was considered to small to follow up on, and the case moved from small files to the several boxes of notes and mementos. Today the case is still open, and the young boy who was more loved in death than he was in life, remains nameless, cared for by the policemen who take over the case and the community who have adopted him as their own..This book was a hard read. I love true crime and the many facets of what can make a person tick, but this story... this was enough to keep me awake nights. I don't often cry while reading or watching a movie, but this book had me in tears more than once. I found myself asking questions throughout this entire read.. how could anyone do this to a child? Who could not claim the young boy and give him his full identity back. I found myself wishing that they could have done more, even though they did everything they could and then some. While this case is still open, given the length of time, its entirely possible that this case will never be solved, and that makes it even worse. As a mother, I can't imagine how any parent could not come forward and claim their little child. I hope that this case will continue and that maybe with the leaps and bounds that forensic science has taken, that this little boy will be identified. Even if the person who caused the injuries or placed him where he would be found is gone, knowing the full story and getting a conclusion to the story would help complete the thousands of hours of work that the original officers and medical examiner put into trying to find the answer. Closure will never fully happen, but a completion and explanation will go a long way to helping a community and police department close the case of the young child who became the "Boy In The Box."
December 27, 2015
The Boy in the Box (later pretentiously renamed America's Unknown Child) was a child, somewhere between four and six years old, found in a cardboard box in Philadelphia in February 1957. He had been beaten to death. Despite what seemed like any number of promising clues, including surgical scars, he has, to this day, not been positively identified, and at this point, every passing day makes it more likely that the person or persons who could have identified him are dead themselves.
This is the book Someone's Daughter wanted to be. Stout is telling the story of the Boy in the Box and of the investigators who kept searching for answers for fifty years, and he's also telling the story of how, over those same fifty years, cases like Bobby Greenlease, Steven Damman, Adam Walsh, Mary Beth Tinning, Stephen Van Der Sluys, Waneta Hoyt, Marie Noe, Little Miss 1565, Jerell Willis (the Boy in the Bag), Angelica Evergreen, and Riley Ann Sawyers (Baby Grace), were changing societal awareness of the vulnerability of small children--particularly their vulnerability at the hands of their caregivers. And, of course, the terrible threnody of the children who are lost and never found, like Steven Damman, and the children who are found and never identified, like the Boy in the Box.
There is a vein of sentimentality in Stout, toward both the Boy in the Box and toward the investigators, and while it's understandable, I find it cloying and distracting. But, obviously, this is a fast and gripping read (I started it over dinner last night and finished it before I went to bed), and Stout does an excellent job of telling the story of an unsuccessful investigation and all the competing narratives it spawns.
This is a sad book in many ways--none of the children Stout discusses can be saved, seeing as how they're already dead, and the investigators' persistence (and sometimes obsession) is not rewarded. But it is also a hopeful book, because for every Mary Beth Tinning and Stephen Van Der Sluys, there is someone who is trying to make things better, to find answers, to bring Waneta Hoyt and Marie Noe to justice. And ultimately, this is the story of people (including Stout himself) who are insisting on REMEMBERING the Boy in the Box, who care even though they have no reason to. It's this quixotic streak that balances the terrible savagery in human nature, and Stout does a remarkably good job of encompassing both.
This is the book Someone's Daughter wanted to be. Stout is telling the story of the Boy in the Box and of the investigators who kept searching for answers for fifty years, and he's also telling the story of how, over those same fifty years, cases like Bobby Greenlease, Steven Damman, Adam Walsh, Mary Beth Tinning, Stephen Van Der Sluys, Waneta Hoyt, Marie Noe, Little Miss 1565, Jerell Willis (the Boy in the Bag), Angelica Evergreen, and Riley Ann Sawyers (Baby Grace), were changing societal awareness of the vulnerability of small children--particularly their vulnerability at the hands of their caregivers. And, of course, the terrible threnody of the children who are lost and never found, like Steven Damman, and the children who are found and never identified, like the Boy in the Box.
There is a vein of sentimentality in Stout, toward both the Boy in the Box and toward the investigators, and while it's understandable, I find it cloying and distracting. But, obviously, this is a fast and gripping read (I started it over dinner last night and finished it before I went to bed), and Stout does an excellent job of telling the story of an unsuccessful investigation and all the competing narratives it spawns.
This is a sad book in many ways--none of the children Stout discusses can be saved, seeing as how they're already dead, and the investigators' persistence (and sometimes obsession) is not rewarded. But it is also a hopeful book, because for every Mary Beth Tinning and Stephen Van Der Sluys, there is someone who is trying to make things better, to find answers, to bring Waneta Hoyt and Marie Noe to justice. And ultimately, this is the story of people (including Stout himself) who are insisting on REMEMBERING the Boy in the Box, who care even though they have no reason to. It's this quixotic streak that balances the terrible savagery in human nature, and Stout does a remarkably good job of encompassing both.
February 1, 2012
It was a very sad story about a ~ 4 year old boy which was found in a box by the side of the road. It is still an unsolved case. It really was tough for me to read because it was very sad... and a lot of people tried very hard to solve this case.
In this day and age we are surrounded by crime scene investigation movies,tv shows, etc... you would think I would become immuned when reading this. I think the opposite happened to me. It made all those awful things real...
And to me.. it was a bit scary.
I did learn though the background story behind the show America's Most Wanted...and the history on the host himself. He had lost his own child to a horrific crime similar to the one... and his new goal in life was to help prevent as many of these horrific actions from taking place ever again.
In this day and age we are surrounded by crime scene investigation movies,tv shows, etc... you would think I would become immuned when reading this. I think the opposite happened to me. It made all those awful things real...
And to me.. it was a bit scary.
I did learn though the background story behind the show America's Most Wanted...and the history on the host himself. He had lost his own child to a horrific crime similar to the one... and his new goal in life was to help prevent as many of these horrific actions from taking place ever again.
October 26, 2010
I have always been fascinated by the Vidocq Society since their success with the John List case. That is what drew me to this book. However, one cannot be emotionally moved by the sad case of this forgotten boy and the cops who would not give up on this case.
If you are interested in Vidocq, a good follow up read is The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases.
If you are interested in Vidocq, a good follow up read is The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases.
September 17, 2020
This was researched well, and I did learn a couple of things I didn't know initially about this case. The author was passionate about this subject and wrote this with feeling.
That being said: this could have been at least one hundred pages shorter, and less repetitive. It is somewhat of a quick read nevertheless with the chapters being short, which I was grateful for in some areas throughout the book. The author has a habit of mentioning the same things over and over throughout, and it is more or less the same sentence copied and pasted.
I love true crime, but this was a little light for me. If you are just getting into reading about the subject this is a good place to start.
That being said: this could have been at least one hundred pages shorter, and less repetitive. It is somewhat of a quick read nevertheless with the chapters being short, which I was grateful for in some areas throughout the book. The author has a habit of mentioning the same things over and over throughout, and it is more or less the same sentence copied and pasted.
I love true crime, but this was a little light for me. If you are just getting into reading about the subject this is a good place to start.
August 7, 2015
Incredibly sad story of a very young boy, beaten to death and abandoned. It's hard to understand how someone could do this to a child, and for no one to ever come forward when a child disappears. Moving how the case affected so many lives of investigators through the years. It did get a bit side-tracked about other cases of children who were essentially "thrown away". Well written book. Be ready to have your heart tugged on if you read this one.
July 2, 2017
The case of the boy in the box is about as fascinating and frustrating as they get. The book is also both fascinating and frustrating because, as it says right there in the title, this case is still unsolved. Stout takes the reader through every possible theory, lead and let down imaginable. But the book itself is not a let down at all, it's well-written and gripping. I highly recommend it.
Read
August 7, 2017This was such an amazing, but sad read. It was one of the first ones I picked up when I started reading again. I cried, a lot, reading it, but it's definitely a great book.
February 7, 2025
I first heard of "The Boy in the Box" sometime within the past 10 years or so. Every now and then I'd go to his Wikipedia page to see if there were any updates. I must not have done so for over 2 years, because a few weeks ago I found a YouTube channel who did an hour-long "documentary" on the Boy in the Box, and watching it gave me quite the shock! There was something I had never seen or heard before: the boy's name.
Turns out America's Unknown Child was identified in late 2022 and I didn't know until early 2025.
As soon as I learned his name, I went to see if there had been any books published about him, and sure enough, I found a few. This story has always saddened and fascinated me, and I was ecstatic to learn he had finally been identified...after 66 years!
This book was published some 15 years before the boy was identified, and knowing that as I began this book, made it read SO MUCH differently that it would have if I had found the book years ago.
The boy has been identified, he is no longer America's Unknown Child. While his murder may still technically be unsolved, I do feel the story that has been provided is most likely true. It fits.
I expect to be going to his grave sometime in the near future to pay my respects, as his story will always have a place close to my heart.
-JOSEPH AUGUSTUS ZARELLI-
Turns out America's Unknown Child was identified in late 2022 and I didn't know until early 2025.
As soon as I learned his name, I went to see if there had been any books published about him, and sure enough, I found a few. This story has always saddened and fascinated me, and I was ecstatic to learn he had finally been identified...after 66 years!
This book was published some 15 years before the boy was identified, and knowing that as I began this book, made it read SO MUCH differently that it would have if I had found the book years ago.
The boy has been identified, he is no longer America's Unknown Child. While his murder may still technically be unsolved, I do feel the story that has been provided is most likely true. It fits.
I expect to be going to his grave sometime in the near future to pay my respects, as his story will always have a place close to my heart.
-JOSEPH AUGUSTUS ZARELLI-
February 27, 2020
It is incredibly saddening to know a child is left nameless. Treated so inhumanly and left as trash showing no identification markers. Reading this I found that there are more children killed yearly then we know and it’s appalling & heartbreaking more than words could express. This isn’t a “happy” story but it’s one that opens your eyes to realizing there are terrible things that occur to those who cannot protect themselves that should be focused on by more people than their selves and what they can find to be offended about on social media. Humanity really needs to revived and this story definitely highlights how it wants was prevalent in society and over time how much it has decayed and fallen away.
October 26, 2021
Hasta hace nada los contextos podían conmigo. Si leía un libro sobre un asesinato en Wisconsin, por ejemplo, me irritaba muchísimo que me contaran la historia de las once tribus indígenas del estado. Curiosamente, The Boy in the Box es muy rico en contextos. Es comprensible porque de donde no hay no se puede sacar (el caso sigue abierto). Pero también es enriquecedor. Sobre todo porque se trata de escenarios concisos. Por seguir con el ejemplo, en vez de la historia de las once tribus solo relata una, la que está directamente relacionada con el caso.
Por lo demás, me gusta cómo está escrito. Me gusta la dedicación de Remington Bristow, la adopción del niño por tantos vivos y el relato de Mary.
Por lo demás, me gusta cómo está escrito. Me gusta la dedicación de Remington Bristow, la adopción del niño por tantos vivos y el relato de Mary.
February 27, 2019
I was surprised to find this book on this unknown boy shortly after I learned of his case. It always made me extremely sad to know that he's gone unidentified and nameless for so long. It was nice to see the different theories that the officers of this case tracked down and it really shows how much they cared for that unknown boy to follow through with the case - some even to their own deaths. I really hope one day the case is cracked and this boy in rescued from anonymity and finally given his name.
December 31, 2024
A very interesting account of an old unsolved case of The Boy In The Box this book takes you into all the leads that the police received in relation to this case.A boy abandoned and left in a box.in February 1957 ..such a sad case but what gives me hope is the case has always remained open and as of this date the boy has been given his name back through advances in DNA technology.
May 12, 2021
Story is so sad I’ve read it I read it online they need to solve this case is fine at the Name of boy of in box Somebody’s closure person I read it! I need to read the book!!! Then they need to solve a boys name and put it on the graveside
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 1, 2022
Histoire vraiment triste.... Le mélange avec d'autres histoires par ci par là rend la lecture un peu difficile par moment car on s'y perd. Mais ça reste un très bon livre et nous ouvre les yeux sur la misère du passé.
May 11, 2017
It's summer and I'll read trash if I want to
Placeholder review. Book was guilty pleasure but light on the pleasure part. May write longer review at a later time.
Placeholder review. Book was guilty pleasure but light on the pleasure part. May write longer review at a later time.
July 21, 2017
strange
February 9, 2019
A well-researched, engrossing tale about America's Unknown Child, but one that got a tad too political for me to give it five stars.
June 25, 2019
200+ pages of an interesting and incredibly heart breaking case. Rather well written, I hope they do eventually figure out who the boy was.
Read
February 15, 2020Great book
June 28, 2021
To be reviewed.
December 27, 2021
Heartbreaking, and completely riveting.
October 30, 2023
Identified as Joseph Augustus Zarelli through forensic genetic genealogy in October 2021.
April 11, 2024
True crime (sad) story from 1957 in Philadelphia.
March 7, 2021
An extremely sad story that unfortunately is a lot more commonplace than most people would like to admit. Chronicles the infamous case of a child who was murdered, and disposed of in a partially wooded area in a Pennsylvania.
The book also mentions some other infamous child muder cases such as the Boy in the Bag and Baby Grace incidents.
Overall, a good read, though very depressing.
The book also mentions some other infamous child muder cases such as the Boy in the Bag and Baby Grace incidents.
Overall, a good read, though very depressing.
December 11, 2023
The author includes a lot of unnecessary information and I could not keep track of the timeline. I was really excited to learn about this case only to not learn more than the basics. This child definitely deserved a better book in his honor.
January 17, 2009
I first became aware of this case through a recent news article, summing up the facts of the story as it first appeared in the 1950's. I've always been fascinated by true crime, a passion that followed me through the years getting a Criminology degree from Adelphi University.
On February 25, 1957, the nude, badly bruised body of a young boy was found in a cardboard box in trash-strewn woods of north Philadelphia. Posters of the "Boy in the Box" soon dotted the city and police stations nationwide - to no avail. In November 1998 the remains were exhumed for DNA analysis, and the boy was reburied as "America's Unknown Child."
The 1950's are often though of as Camelot years marked by black and white TV, paperboys and milk deliveries, friendly neighbors and rigid social rules. I was a little girl of 8 or so when I encountered my first true crime story, a piece of my mother's history that had happened in her childhood, as a little girl growing up in Queens Village, NY, in the early to mid sixties. To the best of my recollection, her account stated that a little girl the neighborhood had gone missing, leaving behind only her skate key. The neighborhood fathers went looking for the girl all over town. According to my mother's account, the body of the molested little girl was later found buried in the gravel parking lot of a grocery in the neighborhood, the victim of a man who had been recently released from a mental institution close to town. Later, into my teens the information prompted me to ask what had happened to the man who had committed the crime. I remember my mother looking uncomfortable: "To be honest honey, I don't really know. I was a very little girl then, and I would imagine that the dads in town took care of it." My response was something along the lines of a question concerning whether the police had been involved. To this day, I don't think my mother knows if they were.
Later research in my adult years prompted me to go through crime periodicals in pursuit of any interesting facts about my old neighborhood in Queens, where my mother and I had grown up in the same house, in a town that slowly began to change with time. Originally a picture of Leave it to Beaver suburbia, Queens Village later started to change as people moving from the nearby city began pushing into the town's borders. I discovered things that even my mother had not known. In the early part of the century, the first woman to meet the electric chair in NY had come from our neighborhood. Abused and belittled by her husband, she had used a curtain rod to hit him in the head, causing his death.
No one ever mentions the little things that might become dirty stains on a town's reputation, and I'm sure that in the case of The Boy in the Box, the original assailants, possibly his parents, are probably long dead. even so, I wish the investigators of the Vidocq Society every hope that they will one day solve the case, if only to give the boy the dignity of a name and give some closure to the men and women who have spent their lives dedicating time to the case.
For more information about the case, please see: http://americasunknownchild.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_...
http://www.vidocq.org/northeast/boybo...
There is also an upcoming movie based on the case: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139282/
On February 25, 1957, the nude, badly bruised body of a young boy was found in a cardboard box in trash-strewn woods of north Philadelphia. Posters of the "Boy in the Box" soon dotted the city and police stations nationwide - to no avail. In November 1998 the remains were exhumed for DNA analysis, and the boy was reburied as "America's Unknown Child."
The 1950's are often though of as Camelot years marked by black and white TV, paperboys and milk deliveries, friendly neighbors and rigid social rules. I was a little girl of 8 or so when I encountered my first true crime story, a piece of my mother's history that had happened in her childhood, as a little girl growing up in Queens Village, NY, in the early to mid sixties. To the best of my recollection, her account stated that a little girl the neighborhood had gone missing, leaving behind only her skate key. The neighborhood fathers went looking for the girl all over town. According to my mother's account, the body of the molested little girl was later found buried in the gravel parking lot of a grocery in the neighborhood, the victim of a man who had been recently released from a mental institution close to town. Later, into my teens the information prompted me to ask what had happened to the man who had committed the crime. I remember my mother looking uncomfortable: "To be honest honey, I don't really know. I was a very little girl then, and I would imagine that the dads in town took care of it." My response was something along the lines of a question concerning whether the police had been involved. To this day, I don't think my mother knows if they were.
Later research in my adult years prompted me to go through crime periodicals in pursuit of any interesting facts about my old neighborhood in Queens, where my mother and I had grown up in the same house, in a town that slowly began to change with time. Originally a picture of Leave it to Beaver suburbia, Queens Village later started to change as people moving from the nearby city began pushing into the town's borders. I discovered things that even my mother had not known. In the early part of the century, the first woman to meet the electric chair in NY had come from our neighborhood. Abused and belittled by her husband, she had used a curtain rod to hit him in the head, causing his death.
No one ever mentions the little things that might become dirty stains on a town's reputation, and I'm sure that in the case of The Boy in the Box, the original assailants, possibly his parents, are probably long dead. even so, I wish the investigators of the Vidocq Society every hope that they will one day solve the case, if only to give the boy the dignity of a name and give some closure to the men and women who have spent their lives dedicating time to the case.
For more information about the case, please see: http://americasunknownchild.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_...
http://www.vidocq.org/northeast/boybo...
There is also an upcoming movie based on the case: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139282/
April 9, 2010
Philadelphia's Boy in the Box is one of the country's most famous unsolved crimes, but New York Times reporter Stout delivers a disappointing account of the long-running investigation. In February 1957, the body of a boy between ages four and six was discovered in a cardboard box in a wooded area in Philadelphia's Fox Chase section. Even with an apparent abundance of clues—the plaid blanket wrapped around the body, the cap found nearby—the case went cold fast, though it would become a lifelong obsession for several investigators. Remington Bristow, from the Medical Examiner's office, spent the rest of his life tracking down leads. Detectives Bill Kelly and Sam Weinstein joined the city's elite Vidocq Society—forensic professionals and others who try to solve such crimes—in the hopes of finally giving the boy a name.
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